Five years ago, a survey conducted among 2000 citizens by WCIOM, a Russian public opinion polling centre, offered results that could well be authentic. Since the subject matter was apolitical, respondents’ answers could be considered as genuine.
The five most prevalent conspiracy theories in 2018, in reverse order by the size of the adherents’ group:
Seven percent of Russians believe that the earth is flat or not round.
Fully 45% are convinced that aliens exist. Of these 27% think they’re in hiding on earth and 18% suspect authorities are keeping these facts secret.
As might be expected 57% of Russians believe the Americans faked the moon landing in 1969. Only 24% think it actually happened. The largest section of this group (38%) supporting the fake landing hoax, are those who put their trust in science. The wide acceptance of this conspiracy is due to the decades of confrontations and rivalries between the two countries.
Fifty nine percent thought that scientists were hiding the truth from the public. Of those who hadn’t finished school, 77% didn’t believe scientists. Prior to 2018, 79% found scientists credible.
The existence of a world government conspiracy theory had the largest base of Russian believers. As with mistrusting scientists, it had made tremendous inroads between 2014 and 2018, increasing from 45% to 67% in Russian society.
Who would play a role in this government? Oligarchs, financiers, bankers joining the traditional conspiracy personalities – Freemasons. Rockefellers, Rothschilds with Putin and Trump added on for some.
In the US, acceptance of conspiracy theories is substantially widespread. In 2013, Public Policy Polling found that 37% of Americans think that global warming is a hoax, 21 believe the government is lying about space aliens and 28% are convinced a secret cabal is plotting to take over the world.
In recent years, Putin has increasingly espoused and actively propagated a previously fringe ‘Golden Billions’ conspiracy theory. It’s a theory traced back to the waning years of the Soviet Union, which accused one billion global elites of hoarding the world’s resources, leaving the rest to languish.
Already back in 2000 Putin stated that global development was divided between the “golden billion and the rest of humanity”. He has now extended the argument, accusing the West of forcing ‘cancel culture’, LGBT rights and gender fluidity on a world rooted in ‘traditional values’. The West’s “homophiles” are set to destroy Russia. This part of his advocacy finds significant support in the West.
But he also uses it as a counternarrative after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Four months into the attack, in a presentation to the June 2022 International Economic Forum, Putin said that the “Kremlin was forced to initiate the invasion of Ukraine”…… “The West is trying to resist the course of history”……”They are in captivity of their own delusions about countries outside of the so-called golden billion.”
While the ‘Golden Billion’ and ‘Deep State’ conspiracies do not identify the same cohorts, they still exploit a latent fear of some hidden, diabolical group, conspiring to seize control. Already in 2019, Putin identified an anti-Trump ’deep state’, who were driven by “their superiority over the entire world”.
Trump and his supporters have consistently propagated the idea of a deep state, emphasizing the collusion of entrenched career government workers, operating conspiratorially by obstructing, resisting and subverting the intent of elected officials.
Just a few weeks ago, Trump himself told his supporters that, “Either the deep state destroys America, or we destroy the deep state.” Back in
2018, the Monmouth Poll found that 74% of Americans said that a deep state either definitely or probably existed. An NPR/Ipsos poll in late 2020 found that 39% believed a deep state had worked to undermine Trump.
A special investigative counsel, appointed by the Trump administration specifically mandated to corroborate the existence of a deep state, has not been able to find any evidence of this, especially within the ranks of the FBI which Trump explicitly targeted. Observers are convinced that there is no deep state.
Should we be concerned about the prevalence and immutability of conspiracy theories, especially those that attack the underpinnings of a democratic society? During Trump’s term, the conspiracy theorists moved from the fringes and took up residency in the White House. His theories strike at the very core of constitutional democracy: claiming rigged elections, intending to impose martial law, labeling political opponents as criminal, accusing the FBI of harboring a plot against him, etc. The ‘Big Lie’ is still front and center in Trump’s campaign tour.
We lack the means to counter conspiracy theories advanced by the Kremlin, the ‘deep state’ being one that converges with Trump’s message. But we can ask conspiracy theorists in the West to walk us through the evidence, step by step, that proves their argument. (More on this coming.)
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